The radical move that America could take to stub out smoking
The push is on to make tobacco less addictive with moves in the United States to reduce nicotine in cigarettes to ‘non-addictive’ levels. Political editor David Williamson reports...
ANEW front is opening up in the battle to stop people smoking. The fight is on to get cigarette manufacturers to make their products not only less harmful but less addictive.
An earthquake ran through the industry last week when the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to consult on reducing nicotine in cigarettes to “non-addictive” levels.
Few people might have expected one of the biggest clampdowns on the tobacco industry to come at a time when Donald Trump is in the White House, but for FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb this is a nobrainer.
Announcing the plans, he said: “The overwhelming amount of death and disease attributable to tobacco is caused by addiction to cigarettes – the only legal consumer product that, when used as intended, will kill half of all long-term users.”
The US may be pulling out of the Paris climate change agreement and it seems unable to introduce effective gun control but it looks as if patience with Big Tobacco has run out.
Why? The economic cost – never mind the impact on public health – of addiction may have climbed too high to tolerate any longer.
The FDA stated: “Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, causing more than 480,000 deaths every single year. In addition to the devastating human toll caused mainly by cigarette smoking, tobacco also causes substantial financial costs to society, with direct health care and lost productivity costs totalling nearly $300bn a year”.
The US move will challenge the rest of the world to also tackle the addictive properties of cigarettes.
In 2016-17, a fifth of adult men and 17% of women still smoked in Wales. There is a clear link between poverty and the likelihood of having the addiction.
Just 9% of adults in the least deprived areas of Wales smoked compared to 28% in the most deprived.
Conservative health spokeswoman Angela Burns wants to see radical action to combat tobacco addiction in the UK.
She said this was justified due to the “overwhelming number of young people being set on a path to early death or illness”.
The Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire AM said: “We have to try something radical to stop people from succumbing to the harmful consequences of smoking, and that should start with banning addictive levels of nicotine in cigarettes. I’m stunned that it’s legal to have such high levels of nicotine in tobacco products in the first place.
“I want to see the UK taking a similar path to the FDA in America, and leading the way in reducing the overwhelming number of young people being set on a path to early death or illness – as a result of a product which is set up to be difficult to stop. It’s about common sense and fairness.
“Adults have a right to choose an unhealthy lifestyle, but we shouldn’t be making it easy for tobacco firms to unfairly profit from a habit which they make dangerously difficult to stop.”
A 2013-14 study of 15 and 16-yearolds in Wales found 8% of boys and 9% of girls smoked regularly.
There is keen interest in the move by the US to reduce the addictive power of cigarettes – but questions are also being asked about the effectiveness of these tactics. Will it drive people towards high-nicotine cigarettes on the black market, and could it have other negative intended consequences?
Linda Bauld, deputy director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, commented in the New Scientist: “Cigarettes are available globally, and selling less-addictive versions in the US could result in a black market in imported or counterfeit products. Reducing the nicotine might also mean smokers take in more toxicants such as tar by puffing harder and for longer on their cigarettes – something the FDA plans to test in a consultation period.
“It is important to remember that nicotine is not the harmful constituent in cigarettes, but the many nasties present in the tar. It remains to be seen how viable this move is.”
The FDA’s announcement sent the stock of some of the biggest names in tobacco tumbling, but the industry insists it is committed to innovation.
Plaid Cymru Ceredigion MP Ben Lake called for a review of nicotine levels in the UK, saying: “Two thirds of smokers start smoking before the age of 18 and some 30 young people take up smoking every day in Wales.”
Andy Glyde, Cancer Research UK’s public affairs manager in Wales, had questions about how effective a nicotine reduction approach would prove.
He said: “Reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes has shown some promise in trials but would be complicated to implement in the real world. The priority should be helping smokers to quit through funding effective NHS Stop Smoking Services and ensuring they have access to less harmful alternative sources of nicotine like e-cigarettes
“Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of cancer worldwide, causing at least 14 types of cancer. Cancer Research UK’s aim is to see a tobacco-free Wales by 2035, where fewer than 5% of the population smoke.”
A Welsh Government spokesman stressed that positive progress had been made, saying: “Smoking prevalence amongst adults in Wales is at an all-time low of 19%; and is reducing amongst young people, with only 7% of boys and 9% of girls aged 15-16 now smoking regularly. We are keen to reduce this further, and legislation in the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017 will support this.
“We will continue to monitor all evidence on effective ways of preventing young people from becoming addicted to nicotine.”
A UK Government Department of Health spokeswoman defended the British record, saying: “Britain is a world-leader in tobacco control and our smoking rates are at an all-time low. We have recently announced our robust tobacco control plan to reduce rates even further on the way to a smoke-free generation.”